SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants have officially moved Michael Morse off of the team’s 40-man roster.
On Friday afternoon, San Francisco announced that it had transferred Morse to the 60-day disabled list to make room for infielder Engelb Vielma, who was acquired on Thursday off of waivers from the Minnesota Twins.
Morse hasn’t appeared in a game since May 29, and he hasn’t spent time with the club at all during the second half of the season. Manager Bruce Bochy did say that Morse visited the team in Miami when San Francisco traveled to play the Marlins, but Bochy never spoke with Morse because he arrived in the first inning of a game.
Morse suffered a concussion during the May 29 brawl between the Giants and Nationals that started after San Francisco reliever Hunter Strickland hit Washington star Bryce Harper with a 98 mile per hour fastball. Morse came rushing in from first base, and ended up colliding with pitcher Jeff Samardzija who also raced onto the field.
Vielma was the Twins’ No. 25 prospect according to Baseball America, but he struggled after being promoted to AAA earlier this season. The Venezuela native hit .206 with an on-base percentage of .233 with AAA Rochester after a successful start to the year with the Minnesota AA affiliate.
“He’s a very good defender I can tell you,” Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said. “I don’t know a lot about him. But he’s trying to figure it out with the bat.”
Bochy added that
Hernandez dealing with sprained wrist
When Bochy unveiled his lineup for Friday’s contest against Arizona, it included an interesting quirk, as Orlando Calixte was listed as the starting center fielder.
Calixte has played nine games in left field, four games at shortstop, two games in right and one game at third base, but Friday night will mark his Major League debut in center field.
The Giants didn’t want to play starter Denard Span against Diamondbacks’ lefty Robbie Ray, but typically, Gorkys Hernandez would fill in for Span. However, prior to Friday’s game, Bochy revealed that Hernandez is unavailable.
“Gorkys’ wrist, he’s not available right now,” Bochy said. “I put him at day-to-day, but his wrist is pretty sore. He said it happened two to three weeks ago and it’s just gotten a little worse and we’re trying to get this thing healed up so he can get back to playing.”
Bochy said that he hoped to have Hernandez back soon, but with just 14 games remaining this season, it’s possible Hernandez won’t play again.
“I don’t think so, but with how much time we have, I think that’s a possibility,” Bochy said. “He just tweaked it, sprained it, I don’t even think he’s sure how he did it. There’s some inflammation in it.”
Calixte said Friday that he thinks he played about 15 games with the Sacramento River Cats in center field this season, and he’s comfortable playing all four infield positions and all three outfield spots. With the start against Arizona, he’ll have the chance to provide the Giants with superior defense to Span, who ranks 198th out of 199 qualifying Major League outfielders in Outs Above Average (OAA), MLB.com’s newest defensive metric.
Hernandez has typically provided the Giants with strong outfield defense, and on Friday, Bochy spent a few minutes praising Hernandez for his ability to reverse his first half struggles. Hernandez finished the month of May with a sub .200 batting average, and he’s now hitting .251.
Hernandez also ranks 22nd among all qualifying Major League outfielders in OAA, saving the Giants five outs this year compared to the average outfielder. In comparison, Span has cost the Giants 12 outs. Only the Braves’ Matt Kemp (14), has cost his team more.
“If you break up the season, it’s one of the best comebacks a player has had in a year with the start that he (Hernandez) had,” Bochy said. “He’s come on strong. He was one of our better hitters for quite awhile. Part of that was getting acclimated and not playing every day. Defensively, he was above average. He just did a great job in the outfield, playing all three, left, center, right and offensively, he came on and ended up putting up some pretty good numbers considering where he was. With his struggles early in the season, there were questions, why is here. Then, when you get to see him play more defensively, you see how gifted this guy is. I’ll put him up there with some of the top center fielders, that’s how good I think he is.”